1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages.
2. Description of the Related Art
As apparatuses of this type, two types of apparatuses are widely known conventionally, i.e., one which has a structure unsuitable for high-speed operation and is designed for using natural intestine casings and another which has a structure suitable for high-speed operation and is designed for using artificial casings. The natural-intestine-sausage manufacturing apparatus is required to be compact, and although known apparatuses satisfy the requirement, they are still unsuitable for high-speed operation. In addition, in recent years, there have been noticeable demands for the sanitation of the apparatus and the quality of sausages with respect to the manufacture of natural intestine sausages; however, it is difficult to say that the known apparatuses sufficiently meet these demands.
The aforementioned known apparatus include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563, U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186, and the like.
FIGS. 1 and 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346 show an apparatus in which a housing incorporating a braking member is provided at a distal end portion of an elongated arm portion attached to an apparatus frame. With such an apparatus, since it is difficult to obtain perpendicularity between the apparatus frame and the arm portion, the relative positional accuracy of the braking member and a nozzle is low, so that such an apparatus is unsuitable for high-speed operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346 discloses a sausage manufacturing apparatus comprising a raw-material supplying means for intermittently supplying a fixed amount of a material into a natural intestine casing and a pinching means for pinching the stuffed natural intestine casing by operating in synchronism with the intermittent supply of the material. With this apparatus, the quantity of the casing being pulled out from the stuffing nozzle by force of discharging the raw material is difficult to be made uniform, with the result that the stuffing degree of the sausage links (the tension of the sausages) is also difficult to be made uniform.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563 (FIG. 10) discloses an apparatus in which a housing incorporating a spindle to which a nozzle is attached is provided in a vertical plane, and a high-load, high-vibration linking device is supported in opposing two horizontal planes. With this apparatus which requires these three reference planes (the vertical plane and the two horizontal planes) on a main body frame, the relative positional accuracy of the nozzle and the link linking device is low. Further, in this apparatus, since a metering pump is not disposed in the same plane as the vertical plane, the relative positional accuracy of the nozzle and the metering pump is low, so that this apparatus which has low relative positional accuracy is unsuitable for high-speed operation.
With the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563, the sausage material is charged into a natural intestine casing which is moving with pincher members at a fixed speed. If the deviation of the diameter of the natural intestine casing is excessively large, sausages having differences in the stuffing degree of the sausage links (the tension of the sausages) are manufactured.
In the sausage manufacturing apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186, driving units for a metering pump, a chuck, and a linking means are disposed in a right-hand area within a frame, while a box accommodating inverters which are speed changing means for motors for the metering pump, the chuck, and the linking means is disposed in a left-hand area within the frame. Since this manufacturing apparatus has the right-hand area and the left-hand area, the frame is large in the horizontal direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186 discloses an apparatus in which the metering pump, a housing for the chuck (braking member), and a housing for rotating a stuffing tube are disposed on an upper plate member of the frame, and lower portions of the housings are made open to allow the interiors of the housings to communicate with the interior of the frame. With this apparatus, there is possibility that water and the raw material may enter the interior of the frame and accumulate therein.
In addition, the known apparatuses further require a moving means which moves in a circular motion with the pincher members attached thereto as well as a conveying means which is disposed at a position downstream thereof and moves in a circular motion, so as to change the size of sausages. Such a known apparatus is disclosed in FIGS. 8 and 9 of International Laid-Open No. WO 96/41539. This known apparatus comprises the moving means to which the pincher members are attached and which moves in a circular motion, and the conveying means which is disposed at a position downstream thereof and moves in a circular motion. In this known apparatus, since the stuffed casing whose pinching has been released is moved at a fixed speed by the conveying means, the moving speed of the stuffed casing does not change. Accordingly, this known apparatus is hardly applicable to manufacturing natural intestine casing sausages having appropriate stuffing degrees by using natural intestine casings having large deviation in the diameter.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described aspects, and its objects are as follows:
1. To provide an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which is compact and particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages, and permits high-speed operation.
2. To provide an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which is compact and particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages, and permits high-speed operation and excels in sanitation.
3. To provide a method and a compact apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which permit high-speed production of sausages having a fixed quantity and an appropriate stuffing degree by using a natural intestine casing having large deviation of the diameter.
4. To provide a method and a compact apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which are particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages and make it possible to change the link length of sausages and the stuffed weight of the links.
To these ends, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages including a stuffing nozzle for discharging from its distal end a food product material supplied from its material inlet port and for forming a stuffed casing stuffed with the food product material, a hollow spindle for rotating the stuffing nozzle, and a braking member for engaging an outer surface of the casing on the stuffing nozzle, the apparatus comprising: a main body housing having a base plate extending in the same direction as a direction in which the stuffing nozzle extends from the material inlet port toward the distal end, and a side plate extending from a specific portion in the direction of the base plate in such a manner as to meet the base plate at an angle; a spindle housing attached to the base plate so as to rotatably support the hollow spindle; and a braking-member supporting member disposed at a position opposing the side plate so as to support the braking member at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle, or a braking-member supporting member supported by the side plate so as to support the braking member at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle. In this apparatus, since the braking-member supporting member is disposed at a position opposing the side plate of the main body housing, or since the braking-member supporting member is supported by the side plate, the relative positional accuracy of the braking-member supporting member and the stuffing nozzle is high.
The specific portion of the front wall, the base plate, or the front plate where the side wall or the side plate meets at an angle may be one edge of the front wall, the base plate, or the front plate, or may be a desired portion of the front wall, the base plate, or the front plate located at a position offset from the one edge toward the material inlet port of the stuffing nozzle. The specific portion can be determined on the basis of the desired rigidity of the main body housing and drainability from the one edge of the front wall, the base plate, or the front plate.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the apparatus comprises: the stuffing nozzle, the hollow spindle, and the main body housing which are mentioned above; a spindle housing attached to the base plate of the main body housing so as to rotatably support the hollow spindle; a metering pump to supply the food product material into the material inlet port of the stuffing nozzle; a motor disposed in an upper portion of an interior of the main body housing so as to rotatively drive the hollow spindle; a motor to drive the metering pump; and controlling means disposed in a lower portion of the interior of the main body housing so as to control at least one of the motors. Since the controlling means is disposed in the lower portion of the interior of the main body housing, the size (in the longitudinal direction of the stuffing nozzle) of the main body housing is made small. If the base plate of the main body housing is arranged to be upright, the size of the main body housing in the vertical direction is also made small.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, the apparatus comprises: the stuffing nozzle, the hollow spindle, and the braking member which are mentioned above; a main body housing having a front wall or a front plate having an angle of zero or less than 45 degrees with respect to a vertical plane and extending in the same direction as a direction in which the stuffing nozzle extends from the material inlet port toward the distal end, and a side wall or a side plate extending from one edge or a specific portion in the direction of the front wall or the front plate in such a manner as to meet the front wall or the front plate at an angle; a spindle housing attached to the front wall or the front plate so as to rotatably support the hollow spindle; a motor disposed in an interior of the main body housing so as to rotatively drive the hollow spindle; and a rotatively driving shaft disposed in the interior of the main body housing so as to rotate the braking member; the side wall or the side plate having a through hole formed therein about an axis of the rotatively driving shaft for rotating the braking member. In accordance with this apparatus, since the side wall or the side plate extends in such a manner as to meet the front wall or the front plate at an angle, the main body housing has large strength with respect to the load and the vibrational load. Since the spindle housing is attached to the front wall or the front plate which has an angle of zero or less than 45 degrees with respect to a vertical plane, it is possible to prevent the stagnation of the sausage material which leaked from the spindle or cleaning water, so that the apparatus is sanitary. Further, since the side wall or the side plate extends in such a manner as to meet the front wall or the front plate at an angle, the positional accuracy of the front wall or the front plate and the side wall or the side plate is high. Since a through hole is provided in the side wall or the side plate and is located on the axis of the rotatively driving shaft, the rotatively driving shaft can be disposed accurately with respect to the position of the spindle housing (stuffing nozzle). If an arrangement is provided such that a braking-member supporting member for supporting the braking member at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle is disposed by being supported by the side wall or the side plate of the main body housing, the apparatus can be substantially made compact and simple.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the apparatus comprises: the stuffing nozzle, the hollow spindle, the spindle housing, and the main body housing having the base plate, which are mentioned above; linking means having a circulating member moving in a circular motion and provided with pincher member which move downstream of the distal end of the stuffing nozzle while pinching the stuffed casing; and a linking-means supporting member provided by being supported by the side plate of the main body housing so as to support the linking means at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle. The linking-means supporting member is secured to the braking-member supporting member, or is attached to the side plate of the main body housing. If such an arrangement is provided, the apparatus can be substantially made compact and simple. This apparatus having the above-described linking means becomes an apparatus which is compact and permits high-speed linking.
In the present invention, the front wall may be formed by only the outer front plate portion serving as the front plate, and the side wall may be formed by only the outer side plate serving as the side plate. Further, the front wall and the side wall in the present invention suffice if they are members constituting walls, and are not limited to the front plate and the side plate. For example, the front wall and the side wall may be a front wall and a side wall formed by cast members molded with different shapes, respectively.
In accordance with a still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages, comprising the steps of: discharging a food product material from a distal end of a stuffing nozzle into a casing fitted over the stuffing nozzle so as to form a stuffed casing; pinching the stuffed casing by a pincher member which moves in a circular motion; and forming a twisted portion at a portion of the pinched stuffed casing while moving the pinched stuffed casing downstream of the distal end together with the pincher members, wherein after the pinching of the stuffed casing is released, ensuing pinching is effected after the lapse of a predetermined time.
The apparatus of the invention for implementing this method comprises: a stuffing nozzle for discharging from its distal end a food product material supplied from its material inlet port and for forming a stuffed casing stuffed with the food product material; and linking means which includes a circulating member having pincher members moving in a circular motion but moving straight in some areas, wherein ensuing pinching subsequent to one pinching of the stuffed casing by the pincher member is effected after release of the one pinching.
Since the pinching of the stuffed casing by the pincher member is suspended for a predetermined time, the moving speed of the stuffed casing during the suspension of pinching is variable without being restricted by the moving speed of the pincher member. If the food product material is discharged continuously from the stuffing nozzle into the casing in a state in which the pinching has been canceled, the stuffed casing moves at a slow moving speed if the diameter of the casing is large, and moves at a fast moving speed, to the contrary, if the diameter of the stuffed casing is small. As a result, it is possible to manufacture linked food products which have no creases and have appropriate stuffing degrees (tension of the stuffed casing) with no possibility of fractures.
In accordance with the construction provided with the circulating member and the pincher member in accordance with the present invention, since the pinching of the stuffed casing by the pincher member at two or more positions does not occur simultaneously, the pinching of the stuffed casing by the pincher member can be suspended for a predetermined period of time. Since the stuffed natural intestine casing is moved with the pincher member which moves in a circular motion including in an area in which the pincher member moves straighly, and the pinching by the pincher member is subsequently released, trouble in stuffing and twisting is difficult to occur. It should be noted that, in the present invention, the circulating movement including straight movement in the area includes movement in an elliptical locus and movement equivalent thereto. Since the area for the straight movement is shorter than the link length of the sausage, the circulating member can be made compact.
A force for moving the stuffed casing may be imparted to the stuffed casing the pinching of which by the pincher members has been released, by a stuffed-casing holding means secured to the circulating member. Such a method also belongs to the method of moving the stuffed casing by the discharge pressure.
The present invention is optimally suited to the manufacture of sausages using natural intestine casings, such as hog intestine casings or sheep intestine casings; however, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the same, and may be applicable to the manufacture of sausages using artificial casings, such as cellulose casings or collagen casings.